How Much Grain?!?!

[Basa Brews]

Hey fellow Beeros

2022 is the year I come up with my own perfect recipe! Hoping to have a brew perfected for my wedding in July (we will see)

Have been brewing for a year, mainly BIAB all grain, with limited equipment, but some pretty decent results. Now I'm moving into my own recipes rather than 'shop bought', the main thing I am struggling to lock down is grain & hop quantities.

I will likely aim to produce only 9-11L to begin with, so that I can keep trying over the new few months, tweaking to get it perfect. But how much grain and hops in grams is the standard for a batch of this size? The one thing the 'Shop bought' recipes never really specify is weight. I will of course be looking at using various grains and hops in the final blend, but need to know the standard total weight for a batch this size, or if they is a calculator of sorts I am missing.

Any help would be much appreciated, if not for me, for all the thirsty wedding guests in a few months time!


THANKS TEAM!

 

[Stu's Brews]

Hi @Basa Brews - welcome to the forum and best of luck with the wedding!

The amount of grain and hops will vary for every beer so the first question to answer is what style of beer do you want to brew? That then helps steer how much (and what type) of grain and hops you'll need.

You can use a recipe calculator such as Brewer's Friend to help figure out exactly how much grain you need to hit a particular OG, how many hops you need for a specific IBU, etc.

 

[Basa Brews]

Hi @Basa Brews - welcome to the forum and best of luck with the wedding!

The amount of grain and hops will vary for every beer so the first question to answer is what style of beer do you want to brew? That then helps steer how much (and what type) of grain and hops you'll need.

You can use a recipe calculator such as Brewer's Friend to help figure out exactly how much grain you need to hit a particular OG, how many hops you need for a specific IBU, etc.

Thank you!

Being in London and having not yet developed the skills of playing around with water modification, I want to keep to a style that works with London's water, so was thinking an English IPA or even a Session IPA, I might play around with some American/Australasian hops in there, but this is yet to be decided.


Have looked at Brewers Friend before, but there's so many variables it all got a little confusing and I couldn't actually find where it told me the required weight etc, but will take another look ☺

 

[Clint]

Tell us what you like to drink and something similar that you would like to create...and how much. There's loads of recipes you could borrow and tweak.

 

[Stu's Brews]

Thank you!

Being in London and having not yet developed the skills of playing around with water modification, I want to keep to a style that works with London's water, so was thinking an English IPA or even a Session IPA, I might play around with some American/Australasian hops in there, but this is yet to be decided.


Have looked at Brewers Friend before, but there's so many variables it all got a little confusing and I couldn't actually find where it told me the required weight etc, but will take another look ☺

For ease I'd assume you are doing a 10L SMaSH (single malt and single hop) IPA and go from there. Such a recipe may look like...

2.25kg Maris Otter (or whatever your preferred base malt is)
20g East Kent Goldings @ 60mins
30g East Kent Goldings @ 10mins
50g East Kent Goldings, dry hop for 3-4 days

This isn't an actual recipe I've brewed it's just a rough stab at a starting point that you can use to derive your recipe.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

You can adjust the weight of the fermentables to alter the ABV accordingly.
I guess you're looking for something sub 5%, so something like 2Kg will give you 4.68% (roughly) in a 10 litre brew.

 

[Horners]

Thank you!

Being in London and having not yet developed the skills of playing around with water modification, I want to keep to a style that works with London's water, so was thinking an English IPA or even a Session IPA, I might play around with some American/Australasian hops in there, but this is yet to be decided.


Have looked at Brewers Friend before, but there's so many variables it all got a little confusing and I couldn't actually find where it told me the required weight etc, but will take another look ☺

To be honest in most parts of London the water is quite hard and the general view is that it is more suited to dark beers - stouts and porters. I am sure you could do an IPA but that would be more despite the water rather than because of it.

Im in London, here is a link to one of my better ones - a session pale ale with American hops, my homage to Camden Pale

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1062619/hamden-pale

 

[-Bezza-]

I work on the broad generalisation that each 1kg of grain into 10l bottled will add about 2.5% ABV, give or take.

I wouldn't get hung up on water chemistry although if you did want to hone things slightly, figuring out the water alkalinity which is the main variable isn't tricky - just buy a salifert test kit - and you can use CRS or acid to help with paler beers. The rest of the water chemistry is a nice-to-have rather than needed I would say. I certainly wouldn't brew a stout for a wedding as it's not a general crowd pleaser!

 

[Tanglefoot]

As mentioned above, easiest way to work out your recipe is with software, I use Brewfather.
Choose BIAB in equipment settings, then go to recipes and pick new recipe.
Then pick style, batch volume and add grains then hops.
You'll see in the table how what you add affects abv, IBU's, EBC(colour), OG, FG etc.
By tweaking amounts you can tailor your brew to your taste.
The table also shows parameters of given style which is a useful guide.

Just dive in, you'll pick it up in no time !

 

[SilverShadow]

Still fairly new to brewing myself, but from what I've seen something around 2.25kg grain would give you 5%+ ABV, for approx 10L

I'm currently brewing an extra strength citra IPA, with 3.2kg grain, which hopefully will result in a rather cheeky 7.5%+ ale

 

[micklupulo]

It may of interest to look at Worcester Hopshop's website and click onto the all grain kits. The contents of each kit are listed so in effect recipes are there for all to see and could obviously be scaled down pro rata for smaller batches.

 

[Tanglefoot]

It may of interest to look at Worcester Hopshop's website and click onto the all grain kits. The contents of each kit are listed so in effect recipes are there for all to see and could obviously be scaled down pro rata for smaller batches.

+1

That is how I started, using Brewfather to scale down Malt Miller AG kits.

 

[Nicks90]

i wouldnt worry about water - just get some 5l bottles of ashbeck bought for pennies and use that.
Also in terms of ingredients, it seems a steep learning curve but it really is simple once you do it once in Brewerfriend.

I do 15-17l brews and generally stick to 3.5kg base malt for 4.5-5.5% brews. (variation due to 15 or 17l final quantity and the attenuation of the particular yeast used). then the rest is crystal or roast malt additions for colour and body/sweetness and then hop schedules. Again once you have done it once you are on to an easy ride in terms of Brewersfriend.
take a look at my AG diary thread - basically cut everything down by 30% and you have recipes.

[note] I am not saying my recipes are good, or that i am a good brewer, but it should give you a flavour of how easy it is to 'create' your own recipes.
[note on my note] some of my brews have been meh. some have been ok and i would buy it happily in a pub, maybe 50% are better than i would get in a pub.
[note on my note on my note] my personal opinion is obviously biased. even though i am always right!

 

[Knuckles]

Hey fellow Beeros

2022 is the year I come up with my own perfect recipe! Hoping to have a brew perfected for my wedding in July (we will see)

Have been brewing for a year, mainly BIAB all grain, with limited equipment, but some pretty decent results. Now I'm moving into my own recipes rather than 'shop bought', the main thing I am struggling to lock down is grain & hop quantities.

I will likely aim to produce only 9-11L to begin with, so that I can keep trying over the new few months, tweaking to get it perfect. But how much grain and hops in grams is the standard for a batch of this size? The one thing the 'Shop bought' recipes never really specify is weight. I will of course be looking at using various grains and hops in the final blend, but need to know the standard total weight for a batch this size, or if they is a calculator of sorts I am missing.

Any help would be much appreciated, if not for me, for all the thirsty wedding guests in a few months time!


THANKS TEAM!

Hi Basa......what sort of equipment are you using? I'm asking because I'm considering moving from kits to AG and cant decide whether to start off with a large pot and and a bag........or to dive in and go all in one....... so just curious what you're using and how you find it.

 

[Paul7189]

Hi Basa......what sort of equipment are you using? I'm asking because I'm considering moving from kits to AG and cant decide whether to start off with a large pot and and a bag........or to dive in and go all in one....... so just curious what you're using and how you find it.

Buy what you can afford. Whatever you buy will end up being not enough in the future so you will end up buying twice. The ability to brew 23 litre batches means 40 pints a go which seems to be a good point. I started with a pan and a BIAB on the kitchen stove making 8 pint batches and there was nothing more annoying that spending hours brewing then weeks waiting then ending up with 8 beers.



In response to the OP I would look at finding the style you prefer, check out websites like malt miller or keg that and see their all grain kits they make in your style and you can ratio the ingredients to your final volume. For water why not try buying spring water from a supermarket. That way you don't need to worry about your local water quality.

 

[Stevieboy]

Don't do it!
Keep brewing though.

 

[Nottsbeer]

All good advice here. What I do alot is to find a recipe (Books or off here/internet) and enter it into Brewfather. Most recipes I find are for 23l....so I input all the info then use the scale button to change it to my planned brew, typically around 11l. I then make small changes to hops/grains if I fancy tweaking the recipe. Very easy and saves alot of hassle. I also BIAB. My efficiency is around 70% so be sure you change the default to what yours is (I presume you have calculated that from previous brews). Good luck and have fun.